A symposium entitled "Communication and Control in Reproduction" will be held in conjunction with the 17th annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Reproduction at the University of Wyoming, Laramie, on July 24-26, 1984. Four lectures by internationally recognized authorities will be presented and discussed at the annual meeting and detailed manuscripts summarizing each presentation will be published in Biology of Reproduction. Between 700 and 800 reproductive biologists will attend the annual meeting and symposium. The topics to be presented and the speakers have been carefully selected to introduce this audience to recent ideas concerning the mechanisms used by cells, organs, and organisms to regulate reproductive processes. The first speaker, Dr. Paul Rapp, Medical College of Pennsylvania, will discuss the ubiquity of oscillatory and other periodic phenomena and the likely importance of these rhythmic signal-response relationships in the control of reproduction at all levels of analysis. Dr. Frank Bronson, University of Texas at Austin, will examine reproductive communication and control from an ecological perspective including the role of factors such as light, heat, nutrition, and crowding. Dr. Richard Schultz, University of Pennsylvania, will analyze ways that cells of the reproductive track communicate with each other to effect coordination of their activities and will include discussion of the role of gap junctions, light junctions, and interstitial fluid. Finally, Dr. William Moyle, Rutgers University, will examine potential biochemical and cellular mechanisms that may be involved with oscillatory and periodic signalling, and will present arguments to support the role of all or none quantal, cellular responses. The symposium is being structured to encourage extensive audience participation and stimulate new experimental approaches. Published proceedings of these presentations will provide reproductive biologists and trainees with a ready source of new ideas applicable to future research, regardless of organism studies or level or type of approach.